(LEFT) Laura Heimes, soprano; (RIGHT) Daniel Swenberg, lutenist
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The Dryden Ensemble returns with its artistic director, Daniel Swenberg, in a program entitled "Daydreams (and Dictators)" on Saturday, November 15, 2025 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Princeton. Admission is free, though donations will be gratefully accepted. Showtime is 4:00pm.
“Daydreams (and Dictators)” explores the flourishing musical scenes at Versailles (Louis XIV), Dresden (August the Strong), and Berlin (Fredrick the Great) in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the renaissance and baroque eras, rulers were highly educated and they cultivated the arts, in particular, by hiring the greatest performers, composers, poets, and painters. Art was used as an expression of power.
The literally enchanting “Sommeil—sleep/dream” scenes of Lully’s operas whisk the listener into a daydream of otherworldly beauty, free from care. The musicians have created chamber versions of these famous scenes from the myriad arrangements of famous arias and symphonies for trio sonatas, harpsichord, and lute solos. Marais’s moving Tombeau for Lully, C. P. E. Bach’s sonata for solo flute, and Sylvius Leopold Weiss’s sonata “Le fameux corsaire” (the famous pirate) complete the program.
The performers include soprano Laura Heimes, Daniel Swenberg on lute and theorbo, Vita Wallace on Baroque violin, Lisa Terry on bass viol, and Caitlyn Koester, harpsichord.
The Unitarian Universalist Congregation is located on 50 Cherry Hill Road off Hwy. 206 in Princeton, New Jersey.
The season will continue on Saturday, January 31 at 4:00pm with “Lachrimæ: In Praise of Tears,” a celebration of two of the greatest song writers: John Dowland and Franz Schubert. On Saturday, February 28 at 4:00pm the ensemble presents "La Conversation," with trios for lute, lautenwerk (lute-harpsichord), and violin. All concerts will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Princeton, 50 Cherry Hill Road.
The Dryden Ensemble is a not-for-profit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and a registered charity in New Jersey.
